This book provides original essays that suggest ways to engage students in the classroom with the cultural factors of American literature. Some of the essays focus on individual authors’ works, others view American literature more broadly, and still others focus on the application of culturally-based methods for reading. All suggest a closer look at how ethnicity, culture and pedagogy interact in the classroom to help students better understand the complexity of works by African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and several other sometimes overlooked American cultural groups. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Helane Adams Androne is an associate professor of English at the Middletown campus of Miami University of Ohio. She teaches courses in composition, African American literature, Latino literature, integrative studies, and women’s studies. She lives in Cincinnati.

Edited by Helane Adams Androne
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 300
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7691-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1734-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Teaching to the (Con)Text 1

Section I: Focus on the Margin
Introducing Multiple Readings of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in the Classroom • Stefanie Dunning • 15
More Than Music and Food: Teaching About Cajun and Creole Cultures and Peoples • Monika Giacoppe • 29
Neither Crow nor Sparrow: Teaching Intersectionality in  Chay Yew’s Porcelain • C. Winter Han • 55
The Possibilities and Pitfalls in Teaching Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a ­Part-Time Indian • Tereza M. Szeghi • 72

Section II: Focus on the Method
Reflect and Act: Using Applied Learning Projects to Engage Students in Text and Community • Helane Adams Androne • 101
The Answer Is the Story: Teachers and Students Authoring American Literature to Understand American Literature • Mary F. Dulworth Gibson • 122
Teaching Spidertown in the Blended Classroom • Dulce María Gray • 141
Performing Community: Teaching Ethnic American Literature Through the Short Story Sequence • David Magill • 169
Problem-Based Learning and Landscape Perspective in a Jewish-American Fiction Course • Jeff Sommers • 184

Section III: Focus on the Philosophy
Using Ethiopian Healing Scrolls as Ethnomedicine to Read Healing in African American and Contemporary American Literature by Women • Shawnrece D. Campbell • 205
Engaging Rites of Passage in Performative Text: Using Ritual Poetic Drama as an Applied Theater Practice • Tawnya ­Pettiford-Wates • 224
Finding Connections, Contexts and Ourselves: Strategies for Moving Beyond Generalizations in the Ethnic Literature Classroom • Ben Railton • 249
The Power of Visual Pedagogy in Teaching American Ethnic Literature • Danette DiMarco • 264

About the Contributors 285
Index 287